THE STORY OF TWO PARISHES

DOLGELLEY & LLANELLTYD

by T.P.ELLIS

XVI THE XVIIIth CENTURY-EARLY XIXth CENTURY.

VIRULENT TOURS IN WALES' OF THE XVIIITH CENTURY-WALES IN THE XVIIITH CENTURY-THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT-NEW TYPE OF WRITERS-DOLGELLEY IN THE XVIIITH CENTURY-ITS WOOLLEN TRADE-SHREWSBURY MART AND CYLINDER-EXPORT TRADE AND ITS DECLINE-VALUE OF THE WOOL TRADE-THE TANNING INDUSTRY-KNITTING, GLOVES, AND WIGS MARKETS.

THERE is very little information apart from economic records, which we can describe as really reliable about the neighbourhood in the first three-quarters of the XVIIIth century. I have already mentioned that this century was distinguished by the growth of a virulent hatred of Wales and all things Welsh among certain English people, and many persons, who were never inside Wales at all, published what they called " Tours in Wales.

In them the writers frequently held up the Welsh people, not to good-humoured chaffing, not merely to ridicule, but to the most disgusting and revolting abuse. The language employed is generally of the most filthy and unquotable character, and every vice and failing, which the ingenuity of man could conceive of, is ascribed wholesale to the Welsh people. I don't think there is, in any literature in the world, anything more revolting than these supposed "Tours in Wales," or which reflects more damagingly, not upon the character of the Welsh people, but upon the characters of the people who wrote them. 

They are, unfortunately, however, too often accepted as authoritative accounts of the state of Wales in the early XVIIIth century.

Now the state of Wales in the early XVIIIth century was nothing like as bad as these fanciful accounts portray it to have been; and though no doubt it was not as high as present standards demand, it was not one whit worse than it was in England, and nothing like as bad as it was in France or Germany.

The early XVIIIth century was one of the very worst periods throughout Europe in the life of nations; and the state of things in Wales was no worse, and probably no better, than it was elsewhere
Towards the end of the XVIIIth century and the beginning of the XIXth century, under the influence of what is known as the Romantic Movement, an entirely new type of person wrote about Wales in English, and the uniform testimony of such writers, -writers like Wordsworth, Peacock, Robert Southey, Shelley, Mrs. Hemans, and our own illustrious countryman, Pennant-honoured names in that wonderful gallery of genius, English literature-shows an intense appreciation of Welsh character, Welsh history and Welsh life. One sometimes feels hat these great writers have ascribed to us Welsh people more delightful qualities and greater perfection than any of us can really lay claim to; but must refer to them, if only to show that the,-disgusting attacks of the XVIIIth century have been honourably compensated for by some eulogiums of he XIXth.

I have had to say this much about the character of English literature dealing with Wales in the VIIIth century, because Dolgelley, like other places, suffered from abuse, and to warn readers that t is only abuse, which is not deserving of further notice, and I have no intention of quoting a single offensive passage from all this accumulation of worthless trash

The actual fact is that, in the XVIIIth century, Dolgelley was an industrious little town, moderately prosperous, fond of good living, and indulging, as other places did, in the excitements and amusements of the day.

Perhaps the best comment on Welsh life in the XVIIIth century is the one made by a Mrs. Prisland, an English lady of Baschurch in Shropshire, who travelled about Merioneth in the years 1765-1771. Among other places she visited Hengwrt, he will call it Hangwood-; and, though at times she is not complimentary, she winds up,her experiences with a good deal about Welsh generosity, courtesy and hospitality, and concludes "For- mirth and jollity, I shall say Wales for ever."

Dolgelley was engaged in building up her famous woollen trade. The stuff was made up into bales and half-bales, a full bale consisting of 110 yards. The warp of the product was made of the fleece wool of the country, and the woof. was a mixture of the same material with from 30% to 50% of lamb's wool. It was made entirely on handlooms.

As a rule, the stuff was sold in its rough unbleached state, and sent elsewhere for bleaching and fulling, but about 1780 fulling-mills were established in the neighbourhood-which accounts for the presence of so many "pandys" in the vicinity,-and it became customary to hang the products for bleaching on wooden trellises, or "tenters" as they were called, which were a common feature of the countryside.

The great inland mart for Dolgelley webs was Shrewsbury, where the trade was under the monopoly of the drapers guild of that town; but about, 1800 buying agents came into the countryside from Liverpool and elsewhere, and the Shrewsbury guild monopoly gradually broke down.

Shrewsbury's monopoly of the Welsh woollen trade was a very ancient one indeed; and I might pause here to tell a story of that trade, dating from a very distant past.

In the Shrewsbury market there was a huge revolving cylinder, the circumference of which was exactly one yard, and when the Welsh webs were brought in, they were placed on this cylinder to check the length, the webs being wound round and round it. At each revolution of the cylinder the seller was credited with a yard of cloth, and it used to puzzle the simple Welsh wool dealer a good deal how it was that a bale of, say, 100 yards had shrunk to about half its size by the time the cylinder had finished with it. It dawned on him at last that, though the barrel of the cylinder might be a yard in circumference, the last revolution, thanks to the rolls of flannel already wound on it, might be taking as many as two or even three yards. When the Welsh sellers did discover the fact, they rose in their wrath, destroyed the cylinder, sacked the market and a part of the town, and I fear killed quite a number of the Shrewsbury buyers, who were carrying on trade on the lines of the approved commercial morality of the times.

The export trade from Dolgelley was, however, not entirely an inland one. Large quantities of woollen goods were shipped from Barmouth, which, though in existence long before as a ferry and fishing centre, was founded as a port in the XVIIIth century by Dolgelley webbers, and the goods were carried down to Barmouth on small sloops from Llanelltyd bridge, which conveyed the goods to Liverpool, whence they were shipped in enormous quantities to Charleston in S. Carolina.

The outbreak of the Napoleonic wars and the action of French privateers made the sea -going trade dangerous, and adversely affected the local woollen goods trade. Goods had to revert to the land route, conveyance by which increased the cost enormously, and the trade began to decline. Added to this, in a short time came the introduction of the power-loom, and the concentration of workmen in factories, and the result was a gradual complete disappearance of the industry.

Towards the end of the XVIIIth century the Dolgelley output was reckoned to be worth £50,000/ to £100,000/- per annum. In 1818 no less than £1000/- per week were paid out in wages in Dolgelley by one manufacturer alone; in 1830, 1,400 people were employed in the web-trade, and 30,000 pieces of 100 yards each were turned out. In 1839 there were 21 employers; the output in that year being 6,153 bales, and one Owen John Owen was manufacturing damasked table cloths, adorned with designs, which had more than a local reputation. In 1837 an order for £20,000/- worth of webs was placed in the town. By 1848 the annual sales had declined to 500 bales of 36 yards each. There was a slight revival thereafter, and in 1850 11 mills were at work, and from then to 1882 the average output was 72,000 yards annually. At the present time the trade is entirely dead.

During this period Dolgelley had an extensive tanning industry six skinner's yards and three tanneries-which still flourishes on a diminished scale, and much occupation was found in dressing lamb and kid skins, no less than 100,000 of the latter being sent annually to Worcester and Chester.

Knitting was commonly carried on, and many travellers note the throngs of busy folk, seated on the bridge of a summer's evening, knitting away for dear life, while a harpist, a singer, or a tale-teller beguiled those at work. To-day the bridge is, too often, the main resort of giggling girls and idle men, whose occupation appears to prop u p the bridge, lest it or they should fall. In addition, the making of gloves and the manufacture of wigs provided employment for many, and I have no doubt that the " Welsh wig " of Soloman Gills in Dombey and Son came from somewhere in Merioneth.

Markets were held every Tuesday and Saturday and busy fairs on Feby. 20th, April 21st, May 1lth, June 27th, August 13th, September 20th, October 9th, November 22nd and December 16th. The principal one was the Ffair y Blodau on the 21stApril, the great hiring fair, when men and women servants, on receipt of a shilling to conclude the bargain, hired themselves out for a year, stipulating as part of the contract, that they should be free to attend the Calanmai or fair of the 11th May.